User blog:XelNecra/Feedback on my Jungle Playstyle
This is adressed to Jungle-Mainers, preferably at higher ratings, but all opinions help me. I have been playing mid and support in season 2 with utmost dedication. Mid is just totally my lane, it fits me really good. I have played ranked, but i got really frustrated because i won 80% of my lanes, but had only a winrate that was below 40% most of the time. Instead of saying "my team sucks" (which seems to be the excuse for 90% of the people in situations like mine), i instead tried to improve myself, as i kept hearing that "carrying" (even though you have sub-par teammates) is something you can actually learn. So i took a break from ranked and tried to learn to "carry" before i wanted to approach ranked again. With season 3, i started a new attempt at playing ranked since i found out some neat tactics that can turn around games even when your team sucks (also see my blog about "how trust wins you games"). Now, for some reason i struggle to get mid lane. Suddenly, everyone wants to play mid. And since i want everyone in my team to play the role he/she enjoys most (so they perform good), i let the others play mid and pick different roles instead. Somehow i ended up being the jungler many, many times. Since i jungled in normal games a lot, it was not that much of a problem because i already knew all the basics. Suddenly i realised that i find it much, much easier to carry as a jungler, because it is easier to have impact on any lane that needs it. Also, my plan how i want to "carry teams" was easier to achieve. I meanwhile found out that i do best with tanky junglers that offer much utility. I play a strong malphite, skarner, sejuani and vi, and lately i picked up Maokai and i did really well with him too. Since i started playing jungle, combined with my new "carrying" philosophy (which won me about 80% of games that i would have lost otherwise), my winrate increased from <40% to >50%, my Pseudo-Elo (Lolking-score) raised by more than 300, and yesterday i achieved 100 LP in bronce 1 and now have the chance to reach silver. My stats are usually something around ~3/4/11 (winning and loosing games combined, so in the games i actually do good my stats are better). In my jungle playstyle, i mainly try to reach lvl 3 (sometimes even only lvl 2) as soon as possible, and then i permanently gank all lanes, even if warded (still works sometimes, and build pressure even if it does not result in a kill) and only occassionally go back into the jungle to farm. I even tend to pick up pink wards and oracles, just to be able to gank even more. I also tend to pick up sightstones in order to compensate the incapability of most players to ward properly. The combination of not-farming the jungle, spending much gold on warding and counterwarding, and not taking the kills (i always try to give them to teammates if possible) delays my builds often, but as long as i am successfull with my ganks i can maintain a moderate build with the asissts. My question now is: Am i doing it wrong? I think that my tactic is pretty successfull, at least at my current (still pretty low) rating, but will it be enough to reach significantly higher leagues? When i see other junglers in ranked, they spend much, much more time in the jungle and they don't bother about counterwarding other lanes most of the time. What advantages does that have? Am i underestimating the jungle farm? If you have any other tips as well concerning my playstyle, please let me know. Thanks for your feedback in advance. Category:Blog posts